Consumer Reports, the popular monthly product testing magazine, was awarded a $2 million grant by the Pew Charitable Trusts to study food safety, the New York Times reported Monday. According to the Times, the organization has already received a one million dollar installment. The magazine’s scientific staff will begin their first round of testing of meat, poultry, and other foods this fall. “We’ll be focusing mostly on pathogens, heavy metals and carcinogens in food,” Jennifer Shecter, a senior policy analyst at Consumer Reports told NYT, which added that the magazine would also be “studying levels of antibiotics and their role in producing resistance to drugs.” As the NYT reports, lab testing is expensive and Consumer Reports “was limited by its budget. The Pew grant will alleviate that burden.” Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, recently released a report, “Meat Without Drugs,” and launched a campaign to pressure retailers to sell meat from animals raised without antibiotics.
